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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2005 11:13 pm Post subject: i saw a smashed squirrel today |
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outside of the saddest estate sale i've ever been to.
all that remained was the tail...everything else looked like tanned leather.
one day we will go to an estate sale and there will be boxes of games there. the games of someone who died. _________________
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Persona-sama Weltbeherrschen Mangaka
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 709 Location: acrylic polymer dismutation
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 5:18 am Post subject: |
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When I was in elementary school, I once saw a dead squirrel. It was on the road outside of the school's park. It was ran over in a way so that the internal organs were popped out of the squirrel's skin. Except it wasn't just the internal organs but the entire skeleton and muscles and everything.
It was grossly traumatic.
I get chills. _________________
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wourme .
Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 9:13 am Post subject: |
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I wrote a short essay on this topic a few years ago for a school assignment. The writing is a lot weaker than I remembered, but isn't it always that way?
In 2000, I wrote: | The shuddering hum of vehicle engines radiates from the congested intersection. Exhaust fumes rise and dissipate into the blue-gray air, curling invisibly around the giant oak trees overhanging the road. Where narrow branches from two trees nearly meet to form an arc high above me, a gray squirrel bursts out of a cluster of leaves and darts along one extended arm to leap deftly across the gap to the other and leaves a gentle swaying as it disappears.
Like its relatives in family scuridae, this squirrel spends much of its time seeking and gathering food. Among the mighty oak limbs, it finds acorns to collect and bury. Many of these nuts will be remain forgotten in the ground and will eventually sprout, completing the symbiotic relationship between plant and animal. The creature I see is one of a vast array of squirrels teeming among the sparse trees of the city. Their arboreal tendencies separate them from their cousins in other places--chipmunks, marmots, prairie dogs, and woodchucks–-cousins who do not so obviously merit the name squirrel, from the Greek shadow tail.
Aside from those that brave life near structures of wood and stone while avoiding the builders of such structures, there live many more squirrels beyond the receded frontier of the forest outside of the urbanized areas. One of these less sophisticated animals ventures out onto the smooth gray stretch of a large highway, sprinting toward the other side of this alien surface in the face of an oncoming vehicle. When faced with a major threat, squirrels are known at times to altruistically stand and sound a call to others in the area, drawing a predator’s attention to themselves and warning others to flee. This squirrel has no such opportunity as its front half is crushed and its broken body flung limply onto a yellow painted stripe. The familiar scene is simply disregarded by some passing motorists, from others it elicits a token sigh of regret but is soon forgotten. Soon only vague furry twisted clumps remain of the formerly energetic creature.
Rain begins to fall from the darkening sky. A row of oak trees lines a peaceful street, where squirrels scamper along the ground and among the tree branches. Some hold food or nest-building materials between their protruding teeth. Others seem to be simply playing, chasing one another around tree trunks and through the grass. None seems to question the importance of its activity. A tiny peaceful corpse of a squirrel that has died somehow lies among the bushes. Insects swarm over it, accelerating its return to the general cycle of organic matter. I become suddenly aware of the ever present sound of squirrel communication, which although overshadowed by larger and louder things, is always in the background, much like the animals themselves. They go on in their work and play and births and deaths and exploration and interaction, regardless of whether humans ever notice their existence. |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:14 am Post subject: |
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that's a good story. _________________
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Mr. Mechanical Friendly Stranger
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276
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Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:56 am Post subject: |
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Every time I drive down the highways here in Oklahoma I see roadkill of all kinds. Mostly possum, armadillo, etc. Every now and then it'll be someone's dog or cat, or just a stray, which is kind of sad. Though, I don't know, maybe I'm just around it too much but a dead animal doesn't really disturb me anymore like it used to when I was younger. To me they aren't animals anymore so much as just rotting flesh, no essence there that would suggest an animal other than shape. And shapes can be deceiving, if we're getting philosophical.
Who thinks animals have souls? I think everything that lives has a soul of some sort. Doesn't mean I think it has feelings and emotions and shit, or that it's even aware of it's existence, just that in some way the magic that gives life to all of us runs through it as well. I'm thinking mostly organic things here, like plants and even rocks and stuff, and not inanimate, inorganic objects. I don't really think my clothes have a soul, unless somehow some of my own is rubbing off on them but I've never thought about that too much. Though, really, when you think about it it's all just matter and energy so who knows. |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 12:41 pm Post subject: |
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i don't think anything like a soul exists, but i do like squirrels. _________________
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nICO .
Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 120 Location: WVUSA
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Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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There aren't really any squirrels where I live, which is kinda sad. When I grew up in Pittsburgh, though, we had two squirrels that were practically pets. They lived in a tree in our yard or something, and we'd feed them and watch them play.
It was nice. Rocky and Bald Eagle I think we named them. Forget why... _________________ Brauner: Damn you, humans... You selfishly start wars and despoil the earth. Perhaps justice wasn't on my side but I will never admit that it was on yours. |
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ApM Admin Rockstar
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1210 Location: Ottawa, ON
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Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 9:35 am Post subject: |
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Grumpy Gamer linked to this on its sidebar. |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:39 am Post subject: |
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yeah, those guys are assholes. i'd like to hold their heads underwater and bring them up, gasping and choking, to scream at them like some sort of horrible hazing ritual.
YEAH YOU THINK DEAD SQUIRRELS ARE FUNNY, DO YA? DO YA? SUCK WATER YOU FUCKING MAGGOTS! YEAH, BREATHE THAT SHIT!
Quote: | Registrant:
SDL
404 Eastley Ct. #3
Kingsport, TN 37660
US
Registrar: DOTSTER
Domain Name: DEADSQUIRREL.COM
Created on: 07-FEB-99
Expires on: 07-FEB-06
Last Updated on: 09-FEB-05
Administrative, Technical Contact:
, brianf1269@yahoo.com
SDL
404 Eastley Ct. #3
Kingsport, TN 37660
US
423-246-4686
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.EHOSTONE.COM
NS2.EHOSTONE.COM
End of Whois Information |
now, here's the question. do i send them a package with an acorn in it that says "here there be rodents" on the side of it or do i send them a letter from a war widow who was saved from a fire by a plucky squirrel named toby? _________________
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Lackey .
Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 1107 Location: Canada
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Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 5:45 pm Post subject: |
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Both from different addresses.
I never understood the determination of some of my neighbours to keep squirrels out of their yards. They're a lot more interesting than birds. I mean, there aren't many backyard animals which regularly perform acrobatic stunts - like tiny ninjas.
Also, Mr. Mechanical is an animatist? _________________ | Little bird fighting against a bat sect game | |
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Mr. Mechanical Friendly Stranger
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276
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Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 9:38 pm Post subject: |
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Lackey wrote: | Mr. Mechanical is an animatist? |
What does that mean? If anything I am a mechanical animatist. |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 7:08 am Post subject: |
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or did you mean animist? _________________
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Lackey .
Joined: 11 Jul 2005 Posts: 1107 Location: Canada
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Mr. Mechanical Friendly Stranger
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276
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Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 9:08 am Post subject: |
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I don't know if I agree with animitism, as I don't think the spirit is an entirely seperate entity from the body. I kind of like to think it's all the same as any other bit of organic matter, and that it transubstantiates at death. Literally, I mean. Dust to dust, worm food and all that. |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 9:14 am Post subject: |
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what you're describing sorta sounds like human consciousness. _________________
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Mr. Mechanical Friendly Stranger
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276
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Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 9:35 am Post subject: |
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Perhaps! I like that, actually, now that I think about it. Death kind of excites me now, because I want to see how "right" I was in my assumptions. The question now becomes, Does my consciousness remain constant in death or does it dissipate into whatever shapeless shifting ether is there for that sort of thing? Can my un/consciousness comprehend being dust and dirt and worm guts all at the same time? |
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nICO .
Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 120 Location: WVUSA
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Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 10:19 am Post subject: |
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Mr Mechanical, Ever watch or read Campbell's The Power of Myth? It'd be right up your alley. I recommend watching it if possible. A lot of libraries have it or you can order it off Amazon for $40 or so. _________________ Brauner: Damn you, humans... You selfishly start wars and despoil the earth. Perhaps justice wasn't on my side but I will never admit that it was on yours. |
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Mr. Mechanical Friendly Stranger
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276
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Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 11:22 am Post subject: |
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Nope, never heard of it, but I'll be looking into now.
Edit-Yeah, just checked it out on amazon, it does look right up my alley. Order placed! |
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Mr. Mechanical Friendly Stranger
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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I just finished the first chapter of The Power of Myth, and I just wanted to thank you for bringing it to my attention. Thank you, nICO, from the bottom of my soul. This book is illuminating. |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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campbell's "the masks of god' series is a good intro into world religions, though he takes the whole freudian/jungian thing WAAAAAAAAAY too far. the pbs adaptation is interesting; billy moyers is young and affable, etc, but the whole thing sorta reeks of desperation near the end. you could tell he knew he was dying, however, which is kinda freaky.
what his estate has done, however, is deeply shameful. they're marketing everything but "joseph campbell's the power of soap" _________________
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Tablesaw .
Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 303 Location: LACAUSA
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2005 1:48 am Post subject: |
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The many paths to cleanliness are next to the many paths to g-d. _________________ It's the saw of the table! |
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